History and lore teach that the shopping cart was invented by Oklahoman Sylvan Goldman, for his grocery store business, the one that became over time Unarco Industries, LLC, the assignee of this disclosure.
At present, the American-market, adult, full-size, wire-made shopping cart has a distinctive construction of a frame, casters, basket, hinged back gate and child seat.
The frame is composed of a chassis and a handle, made up of multiple, bent steel tubes, and sits atop four casters, the rear two of which track forward and back, and the front two of which swivel. A lower shelf of wire lies between the lower side rails of the chassis. The frame handle rises in the back from the chassis to form the “driver's” “steering mechanism.” The basket is see-through, made of wires, and mounts atop the frame, forward of the handle. A hinged back gate with a folding child seat completes the basket and allows the carts to nest with each other in the manner familiar to all shoppers in stores with carts.
In more detail as to the basket, horizontal wires of the basket extend fully from one upper side rail, alongside the handle, around the side of the cart, across its front, back around its other side, and to the opposite upper side rail, on the other side of the handle. A second set of wires extend from a top wire of the first set, down a side of the basket, across the basket floor, and up the other side. A third set of wires also extend from a top wire of the first set, down the front of the basket, and across the floor to the last wire of the second set. As a result, the sides, front and bottom of the cart all have the structure of two groups of wires from among the three sets, crossing at right angles and forming a mesh.
While ubiquitous and iconic, these carts are not without their issues. Some lesser brands wear poorly, show rust, dent and break readily, are expensive to ship, are difficult to separate when nested, and represent assembly processes that have existed for ages with little change.
For more historical information, see the following: Unarco Company History, Unarco Industries LLC, currently found at http://www.unarco.com/history.html; and for more allegedly historically accurate information, Shopping Cart, currently found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopping_cart; Smithsonian's History Explorer, History of the Shopping Cart, currently found at http://amhistory.si.edu/thinkfinity/podcast/shoppingcart.m4a. See as well the following patents and patent publications: U.S. Pat. No. 2,155,896, inventor Sylvan Goldman (original shopping cart); U.S. Pat. No. 2,662,775, inventor same; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,769,645, inventor same (folding child seat with hinged back gate). For more current information, see U.S. Pat. No. 7,090,230 issued Aug. 15, 2006, inventor O'Quin, assignee Unarco; U.S. Patent Publication No. U.S. 2014/0159327 published Jun. 12, 2014, on a Shopping Cart, inventors Smith and McMurtrey, assignee Unarco, especially at FIGS. 2-3; U.S. Patent Publication No. U.S. 2013/0307239 published Nov. 21, 2013, on a Shopping Cart and Method of Assembling Same, inventors Smith and McMurtrey, assignee Unarco, especially at its background; and “Manufacturing Shopping Trolleys,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5hwY1s0O0M, uploaded according to YouTube Apr. 12, 2008.
The following pending patent applications are incorporated by reference in full as if fully set forth in this disclosure: U.S. application Ser. No. 14/098,744, filed Dec. 6, 2013, inventors Smith and McMurtrey, assignee Unarco, also known as U.S. Patent Publication No. U.S. 2014/0159327 published Jun. 12, 2014.